The present disclosure generally relates to reconfigurable tools and/or dies. The reconfigurable tools and/or dies can be adapted to manufacture components or parts having different geometries using the same tool and/or die.
For the process of forming metallic or plastic components, it is common practice to have different tools and/or dies. Different tools and/or dies are necessary to manufacture even those components that have only certain minimal differences in geometry or dimension. Moreover, if a component needs to be formed into different configurations that have only minimal geometric or dimensional changes, different tools/dies are employed. As a result, a manufacturer generally must expend significant resources to accommodate the variety of tools and/or dies necessary to manufacture a variety of components. The resources include not only the financial costs of stocking the various tools and/or dies, but also include the cases associated with changing the tool and/or dies between the different forming operations.
Accordingly, there is a need for a reconfigurable tool and/or die that can be utilized for manufacturing different components, wherein the reconfigurable tool and/or die can be selectively altered to accommodate more than one component configuration.